Written by Jacob Flores, Staff Writer
In the past few years Pokemon cards have exploded in popularity. What caused this? Why did this happen?
Imagine this, it’s December of 1998 and Christmas is just around the corner. You are excited for the day to come and all you want to do is open up the brand new set of Pokemon cards. All the kids at school have cards and you are the only one who hasn’t got any. You are really eager for that day to come. Christmas comes and the first thing you look for is your set of Pokemon cards waiting for you to play with. You are happy and you now have something to relate to with every other kid on the block. That is the feeling that Pokemon cards brought to kids and adults from all around the world too. So – “what are Pokemon cards?” you may ask.
Pokemon cards are a series of trading cards that are used for a playable “in person” experience but mostly used for collecting and showcasing in today’s generation. The card game is set up as a 1v1 battle base game, sorting with a variety of different creatures teaming up together on one’s team and ending in the first person to lose three cards in battle. Pokemon cards came to be after the rise and popularity of the Magic the Gathering trading card game, Originally created on August 5th, 1993 and sought major popularity at the time for its “Unique” way of a playable entertainment experience. On October 20th, 1996 Pokemon released its first set of cards published under Media Factory in Japan and were inspired by the “Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow” Gameboy games published by Nintendo. After the immediate success of the card game in Japan, America wanted that experience as well, bringing Wizards of the Coast, the publishers of Magic the Gathering, onto the Pokemon Investment. It was a hit, Wizards of the Coast sought Immediate success with gathering Millions of dollars more than they had ever made with Magic The Gathering Cards in the first ten years of production.
Pokemon was the new big contender on the block, and they were making a name for themselves quickly. The trading card game brought generations of different age groups together as one, and made bonding so much easier for that day and age. After time passed, different Pokemon sets came to be published yearly, starting with “Base Set”, “Jungle”, “Fossil”, “Base Set 2”, “Team Rocket”,” Gym Heroes”, and “Gym Challenge.” The first generation of Pokemon sets are known to be as the nostalgic and rare type of sets in the Pokemon community, with Base Set and Team Rocket being mainly the two popular sets. It wasn’t just the sets that were making a rise, The “Playable experience” or game itself was getting into the competitive talks with communities all over the world. The first Pokemon TCG World Championship was held in 2004 in Orlando, Florida after the ultimate competitive style that Pokemon as a game brought onto players as a hobby. By the year 2010 over two generations of sets of the Pokemon Trading card game were published, but the downfall of Pokemon was just around the corner. On April 6, 2011 Pokemon released their first set of the third generation Black and White Based off the Nintendo DS games “Pokemon Black and White,” which seemed to be a planned commercial success but ultimately failed to reach the same amount of sales and popularity as other card sets. The Pokemon community was dying quickly and it stayed at a low point for about six years until the new Pokemon game “Sun and Moon” came out on the Nintendo 3DS. Pokemon Sun and Moon was the start of a new generation, making massive popularity due to Pokemon’s new show “Sun and Moon Ultra Adventures.” The community was back, and better than they had ever been before. Pokemon showed that comebacks were possible, and they did not want to let down the community like before.
When Covid-19 hit the world in 2020, Pokemon was at its peak of popularity. With people not finding a source of income, they switched to collecting and searching for certain cards in different sets to make a profit. Card collecting became the main reason for Pokemon’s interest in 2020, with over 1 billion packs being sold in just 1 year due to the investment of finding the “Holy Grail” cards. Content creation began the rise of pack opening during this time, starting the “Re-selling” or “Scalping” terms in the Pokemon Community. In 2023, people around the world started collecting Pokemon cards only for investment purposes other than the main reason Pokemon cards were meant to be used.
Pokemon cards are not something to be sold and only used to make money, but are better sourced asa source of comfort, bonding, relationship building through a wonderful card game.As of 2025, if you go to your local Target, Walmart, or any store in your area, you may see there are no Pokemon cards on the shelves at all. Pokemon cards as a whole are now being recognized as a “Money grab” or an “Investment” in today’s generation, with businesses specifically relying on Pokemon cards to contain and handle profit. In 2024 Pokemon cards became digital with the “Pokemon TCG App” on IOS, and lets players collect digital cards of the Pokemon TCG’s catalog of sets.
Only time will tell what holds the future of Pokemon as a community, business, and card game, but there is something that Pokemon will forever be. Pokemon will forever be the game that everyone and anyone can play, the game that is known for being unique and extraordinary, the game that has brought families and too many people to count together as one, and the game that has brought inspiration to millions of people around the world creating what we know as The Pokemon Trading Card Game.